Latest Post Styled Different Than other Posts (15 posts)

I am making a WordPress theme that has the newest (first) post listed "larger" than the rest. It will have a larger font title and display a thumbnail. How can I style and code this differently than the other posts listed. I only want to do this on the homepage for the first page. Thank you!

I tried using that code both with the code for the loop added and without it and it came up with an error:Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting T_VARIABLE or '$' in ../ConnorCrosby.net/wp-content/themes/cctheme/index.php on line 8
Line 8 would be the if( $counter == 1 ) { ?> line. Thanks very much!

I got it to work by fixing that code and removing the second endwhile and endif; however I need those second endwhile and endif; in order to display the navigation links and if it doesn't show up. Here is what my code is in pastebin:http://wordpress.pastebin.com/rXNTGkXt

Just noticed this. When I go to a second page on the home page, it has the first post as entry-featured as well. How can I make it so only on page 1 it will do that. I think it involves the is_page element, but I am not sure how I would implement that within my code. Here is a link to my most recent code on home.php: http://wordpress.pastebin.com/YdtzwYt9 Thank you!